dope dude. Keep trying it off lower and lower stuff and you'll have it. Your height looked good but if you're feeling like you need more height when you lower the mats, try to set/spot higher. You kind of throw your head back a little bit. If you keep your body more upright you would get some more height. Use the momentum from your arm swing to take your body back, not your head/chest(:

Btw I think you could definitely do it on floor and you'd stomp it. Get rid of the mats.

jackdonovanGonna try them soon, i already have sideflips and flatspins/rodeos on ground, just dont have a gym to try so i have to huck on ground

you can always grab some old pillows or a foamie and flip off a curb or something if your a little unsure. I think im just gunna keep practicing my pop and try to take away the matts 1 by 1 until i get it

-WZ-you can always grab some old pillows or a foamie and flip off a curb or something if your a little unsure. I think im just gunna keep practicing my pop and try to take away the matts 1 by 1 until i get it

i see what you mean, from the vid it looks like you got it, you should bring it to ground soon

I'll share my experience to help you decide. I can do backflips very easily off a rope swing, a diving board, on a trampoline, and on skis. On a trampoline I can do them without bouncing, which may theoretically be harder than on flat ground. After a summer of doing hundreds of backflips off various things, I decided to finally try one without a cushioned landing (no water, trampoline, etc).

I decided to get a little elevation for my attempt, so I stood on the edge of a 4 x 4 table, approximately 20 inches off the ground. The table was painted with grip paint (basically sand mixed into the paint to give it a very sticky, coarse surface). I stood on the edge, visualized it, and hucked. My face made direct impact with the table and grip paint, with results as you might expect. I did not go out in public for several weeks as my face looked worse then Dracula. I had massive bloody scabs over the entire side of my face. It was hideous.

Thankfully I did not hurt my neck or back, and my face fully healed and did not scar. I still backflip off rope swings, on the trampoline, etc. I have not tried another backflip on hard ground.

savvy_skijust waited 4 minutes for that video to load because I wanted to see if you are hot

He is... Anyways I did it first try (claim) but that was because I was so scared that I would hit my face that I decided I would jump as high as I could and throw it as hard as I could and it turns out that criteria worked for me. So that is my advice. Also you jumped back a little in the video to land on the lower surface which you won't have to do on flatground so that gives you more energy to use towards jumping up... Also underrogating isn't that bad, you can put your hands out or land on your knees if you don't absolutely freak out... Also I don't know if you want to try this on pavement but I have ONLY done it on grass.

rballs_leaning back is the dumbest advice ever. Jump up as straight and high as you can.

This. You don't want to set any of the rotation with your back unless you are jumping off of something, and even then your only doing that to jump out not set the flip. All of the rotation comes from looking up, throwing your arms right, and bringing your knees in to accelerate it. The hardest part of the flip is the fear, get over it and they are super easy as long as you can jump with enough clearance.

I took me about 2 years of adolescent fear to work up the courage to do one, but one pool party (I think I was in eighth or seventh grade) some worker dude who was working the bouncy castle (I know) was doing them, and it got me really hyped up and so I just went for it. There was a hill of pretty gentle steepness and first one was stomped no problem. Trying them on a hill at first helps because you still have that little bit of extra time, but it can also lead to bad habits as you may start pushing back when you do them, and you want to basically stay in place. My advice is since you have that mat just take it straight to grass. When you stand ready to jump, find a spot directly in front of you and stare at it. Swing your arms back, then straight up at the sky and focus on that spot. Once you reach the pinnacle of you jump, let the flip come around a tuck up. If that is you in the video you look pretty good so this advice may be unnecessary, but still it can help to get a little more height out of your jump.

Did them a lot off small kickers. Tried one off of about a 10 foot drop. Didnt get the tuck and came down on neck. Still working on getting spine back in 100% working order. Needless to say have not done one since.

work on jumping up more and getting the height before rotating, ideally you should land back where you jumped from, you are traveling backwards a lot. For me it helps to grab my hamstrings when I tuck instead of my knees or shins, to really bring the rotation around You dont need the mats either, you'll have to get mentally comfortable with that concept eventually and you are definitely comfortable enough with rotating... then you just have to do practice them until you develop the muscle memory and the confidence in your own capabilities.

to whoever was asking about what else to try.. sideflips are a great place to start, websters are a really easy to learn front flip variation, and then your normal (punch)front flips, front/back handsprings. There is lots of little fun stuff you can learn along the way and it will all build on top of itself as you progress. take small steps at first and build up, it is difficult to be patient but its much safer.

Got them in one afternoon with a friend spotting me the first few attemps , it really isnt hard , if you can do standing backflips on the tramp you definetly got them. Also if you commit and just bring them around you cant really get hurt, the badest thing wich might happen is landing on your knees.

i would definitely just land straight on my head if i tried one, my vertical is awful. I tried one of a boat couple years back, got the rotation in but didn't jump out far enough so i nailed my head on the boat and blacked out in the water. came back into consciousness with my dad pulling me onto the swim deck thing on the back hahahaha probably won't try it again

I tried one randomly in December and discovered I could do them. I've always been pretty coordinated in the air but I had never been able to pull of the full rotation just standing. But now I can do them no big deal which feels pretty fucking awesome.

Definitely work on your leg and core strength so you can jump higher. Squats, dead lifts, and box jumps.